Serial Mom – It is what it is

‘Serial Mom’ and ‘Snakes on a Plane.’ Two films that – technically – shouldn’t really ever be compared to each other because they’re so radically-different.  However, maybe the one thing they do have in common (besides sharing space in my DVD collection) is that they basically tell you all you need to know about the film in the title, therefore you should know what you’re in for before you sit down to watch.

Kathleen Turner plays the titular ‘Serial Mom’ – a wife and mother to a typical American suburban family who, on the outside, are perfect in every way.  But, the family’s ‘dark secret’ is clearly apparent in the title.  She takes pleasure in messing with some people and even killing others.

And, like ‘Snakes on a Plane,’ once you’ve given what little elaboration of the title is needed, there’s not an awful lot left to say.  If you’re looking for an – extremely – black comedy then you’ll definitely find one here.  Kathleen Turner is brilliantly evil, but don’t expect too much in the way of backstory as to why she’s like the way she is.  This film was made in the early nineties and I reckon that if something similar was produced today then we’d get a detailed backstory as to why she does what she does.

Either way, the film is – as I said – darkly comic and kind of pokes fun of the media reaction of the day (again, if this film was remade then expect all sorts of internet-related jibes involving the social media reaction to such events becoming public).

Oh, and if you ever watched Ricky Lake’s talk show then you’ll be surprised at what she used to look like before she had a studio audience standing behind her!

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that